Tobias66 said:
Im writing a paper for school, but I still havent decided what position I should take on the issue. I wanted to get other peoples opinions first.
Do you think homosexuality is a mental illness? Should it be treated- is it even ethical to treat homosexuality?
It is not a mental illness in that having misplaced sexual desires is not delusional nor a serious imparment to leading a balance, orderly life (
acting on those desires may be, however...).
And, yes, it should be treated if at all possible since a homosexual relationship -- no matter how loving, kind, and sincere -- is not as fulfilling as a heterosexual one. Men and women need each other; we may have close friends of the same gender whom we love dearly, but the ideal relationship is between a man and a woman.
Tobias66 said:
The thing is, it seems to me if you are going to say homosexuality is an illness, you could just as easily argue that heterosexuality is an illness, too.
No, heterosexuality is the way the plumbing is designed, and the way 97% of the human race is oriented. It's like saying that just because 3% of the cars hit telephone poles, shouldn't all cars hit telephone poles? No, that's not what they're designed to do and that's not their optimum fuction.
Tobias66 said:
Why doesnt god like homosexuality? I thought about it, and it seemed like it kinda of makes sense- why wouldnt you like someone who is more like yourself?
Human beings develop emotionally from prepubescence to maturity by starting out preferring only the company of their own sex, and both idealizing and idolizing mambers of their sex to the level of having near romantic crushes on them even though there is no actual sexual desire. However, as we hit adolescence, the brain is supposed to re-wire itself to prefer the company of the opposite sex and to transfer those intense emotional feelings to the sexual desire for the opposite sex. This leads (ideally) to people forming long term stable emotional bonds with their mates.
Gays misapply their sexual desire to members of their own sex. This may be the result of some physiological misfire, it may be emotional miscues, it may be a combination of both. What's key to remember is this: The problem is not the human being who has the misplaced desire, the problem is the desire itself. Gays run the full spectrum of human nature, and they can be nice people or jerks, wise or foolish.
As for God's commandments specifically re sex of any kind: We are taught by Paul in 1 Corinthians that ideally we should be so full of agape (love of God) and philos (brotherly love) that we don't need eros (romantic love). However, if a person can not live without eros, they are to find and marry a suitable person of the opposite sex and to live monogamously with them. Sexual immorality in the form of adultery is specifically forbidden; sexual immorality in the form of pre-marital sex is not specifically banned but certainly never receives any form of approval. Polygamy was tolerated in the Old Testament provided all the wives and concubines had certain legal rights; it was never God's intent for humans to engage in polygamous relationships, and by the time of the latter part of the Old Testament and the New Testament is was not considered accetable (polygamists who converted to Christianity were allowed to keep their relationships, but could not add new partners).
Tobias66 said:
And another thing Im confused about- can you be sexually active with the same sex and still be heterosexual? I mean, sex is sex, you dont have to love someone to do that with them. Are you only homosexual for loving someone of the same sex, or for having sex with them...?
A valid question, and one that shades the nature of the debate, especially in different countries.
In the U.S. and Europe, gays like to claim that anybody who has ever experienced a sexual desire or acted out with a member of their own sex is gay. Truth is, lots of young people don't settle their sexual preferences until late adolescence, early adulthood. Behavior at age 12 does not mean that person is gay or even bi-sexual, for example.
Likewise, in many cultures a passive partner is not considered homosexual if he/she merely allows another person to perform an act on them.
Contrariwise, in some cultures the initiator may be perceived as heterosexual and the recipient homosexual (viz. prison rape).
And just to throw some more stuff into the mix, in some cultures adolescents are supposed to be the sexual playthings of adults of their own sex, so regardless of the minor's feelings in the matter, they are expected to service the adults.
Off hand, I'd say for North America that if a person is forced, coerced, or tricked into a homosexual act, that person is not gay since they didn't seek out the act. This excludes, obviously, people who deliberately look for situations where they can excuse themselves because the were forced, coerced, etc.
